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Boston Marathon bombing jury finds Dzhokhar Tsarnaev guilty of all 30 charges

BOSTON (AP) — Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was convicted Wednesday of all 30 charges he faced after the Boston Marathon bombing by a federal jury that now must decide whether the 21-year-old former college student should be executed.

Tsarnaev kept his hands folded in front of him and looked down at the defense table as listened to the verdict, reached after a day and a half of deliberations. He was found guilty on charges that included conspiracy and use of a weapon of mass destruction — offenses punishable by death.

His conviction was practically a foregone conclusion, given his lawyer’s startling admission during opening statements that Tsarnaev carried out the attack with his now-dead older brother, Tamerlan.

Keep scrolling for a list of all 30 charges against Tsarnaev

The two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that exploded near the finish line on April 15, 2013, killed three spectators and wounded more than 260 other people, turning the traditionally celebratory home stretch of the world-famous race into a scene of carnage and putting the city on edge for days.

In the next phase of the trial, the jury will hear evidence on whether Tsarnaev should get the death penalty or spend the rest of his life in prison.

In a bid to save Tsarnaev from a death sentence, defense attorney Judy Clarke has argued that Tsarnaev, then 19, fell under the influence of his radicalized brother. Tamerlan, 26, died when he was shot by police and run over by his brother during a chaotic getaway attempt days after the bombing.

“If not for Tamerlan, it would not have happened,” Clarke told the jury during closing arguments.

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the brothers — ethnic Chechens who moved to the U.S. from Russia more than a decade ago — as full partners in a plan to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries. Jihadist writings, lectures and videos were found on both their computers, though the defense argued that Tamerlan downloaded the material and sent it to his brother.

The government called 92 witnesses over 15 days, painting a hellish scene of torn-off limbs, blood-spattered pavement, ghastly screams and the smell of sulfur and burned hair. Survivors gave heartbreaking testimony about losing legs in the blasts or watching people die. The father of an 8-year-old boy described making the agonizing decision to leave his mortally wounded son so he could get help for their 6-year-old daughter, whose leg had been blown off.

Killed were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Chinese graduate student at Boston University; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager; and Martin Richard, the 8-year-old. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier was shot and killed during the brothers’ getaway attempt.

Some of the most damning evidence included video showing Tsarnaev planting a backpack containing one of the bombs near where the 8-year-old was standing, and incriminating statements scrawled inside the dry-docked boat where a wounded and bleeding Tsarnaev was captured days after the tragedy.

“Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop,” he wrote.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers barely cross-examined the government’s witnesses and called just four people to the stand over less than two days, all in an effort to portray the older brother as the guiding force in the plot.

Witnesses testified about phone records that showed Dzhokhar was at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth while his brother was buying bomb components, including pressure cookers and BBs. A forensics expert said Tamerlan’s computer showed search terms such as “detonator,” ”transmitter and receiver,” while Dzhokhar was largely spending time on Facebook and other social media sites.

Also, an FBI investigator said Tamerlan’s fingerprints — but not Dzhokhar’s — were found on pieces of the two bombs.

Clarke is one of the nation’s foremost death-penalty specialists and has kept other high-profile defendants off death row. She saved the lives of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who drowned her two children in a lake in 1994.

Tsarnaev’s lawyers tried repeatedly to get the trial moved out of Boston because of the heavy publicity and the widespread trauma. But opposition to capital punishment is strong in Massachusetts, which abolished its state death penalty in 1984, and some polls have suggested a majority of Bostonians do not want to see Tsarnaev sentenced to die.

During the penalty phase, Tsarnaev’s lawyers will present so-called mitigating evidence they hope will save his life. That could include evidence about his family, his relationship with his brother, and his childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan and later in the volatile Dagestan region of Russia.

Prosecutors will present so-called aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, including the killing of a child and the targeting of the marathon because of the potential for maximum bloodshed.

Here are the 30 charges against him:

  1. Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, resulting in death
  2. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1), resulting in death; and aiding and abetting
  3. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; and aiding and abetting
  4. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2), resulting in death; and aiding and abetting
  5. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; and aiding and abetting
  6. Conspiracy to bomb a place of public use, resulting in death
  7. Bombing of a place of public use (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1), resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  8. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  9. Bombing of a place of public use (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2), resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  10. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  11. Conspiracy to maliciously destroy property, resulting in death
  12. Malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1), resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  13. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #1) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  14. Malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2), resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  15. Possession and use of a firearm (Pressure Cooker Bomb #2) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  16. Possession and use of a firearm (Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  17. Possession and use of a firearm (Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  18. Possession and use of a firearm (Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun) during and in relation to a crime of violence, resulting in death; aiding and abetting
  19. Carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury; aiding and abetting
  20. Possession and use of a firearm (Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  21. Interference with commerce by threats and violence; aiding and abetting
  22. Possession and use of a firearm (Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  23. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pressure Cooker Bomb #3 on or about April 19, 2013, in the vicinity of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue in Watertown); aiding and abetting
  24. Possession and use of a firearm (a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun and Pressure Cooker Bomb #3) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  25. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pipe Bomb #1 on or about April 19, 2013, in the vicinity of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue in Watertown); aiding and abetting
  26. Possession and use of a firearm (a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun and Pipe Bomb #1) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  27. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pipe Bomb #2 on or about April 19, 2013, in the vicinity of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue in Watertown); aiding and abetting
  28. Possession and use of a firearm (a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun and Pipe Bomb #2) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting
  29. Use of a weapon of mass destruction (Pipe Bomb #3 on or about April 19, 2013, in the vicinity of Laurel Street and Dexter Avenue in Watertown); aiding and abetting
  30. Possession and use of a firearm (a Ruger P95 9mm semiautomatic handgun and Pipe Bomb #3) during and in relation to a crime of violence; aiding and abetting

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